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Individual Health Insurance Changing: High-Risk Health Insurance

Posted Apr 06 2010 7:48pm

High-risk health insurance pools are one of the first big pieces of the federal health-care overhaul. These temporary high-risk insurance pools are for people who cannot get affordable coverage because of a pre-existing condition. They will be created by late June.

According to the article “High-Risk Health Insurance Pools Set to Begin in June” by Monifa Thomas on suntimes.com, the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, sent letters to governors and state insurance companies outlining the requirements for the pools and telling states they need to make a decision.

States have 90 days from the signing of the health reform bill to set up programs to protect those with pre-existing conditions who have been uninsured for at least 6 months. If they don’t follow through, the Department of Health and Human Services will administer a plan for them. By the year 2014 the high-risk pools will be replaced with insurance exchanges that will allow people to shop for their own individual health insurance .